Stefanie Powers

A near constant presence on television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, actress Stephanie Powers became known for her always reliable portrayals of smart, sexy and intelligent women. A native of Hollyw...
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Actors Amy Poehler and Adam Scott can add interviewers to their resumes after reuniting Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers to celebrate their classic TV series Hart To Hart. The veteran stars played Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple moonlighting as amateur detectives, for five years from 1979, and they were brought back together recently for Entertainment Weekly's annual reunion issue.
Series superfans Poehler and Scott sat down with the pair for a filmed interview, which aired on U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America on Thursday (17Oct13), during which Wagner revealed that he and Powers had to battle show producers to keep their characters in a state of loved-up bliss.
He explained, "You know, it's great to be married if it works. We never got into any domestic squabbles (onscreen). They (producers) constantly wanted to have conflict... between us and we fought very hard for that (not to have fights onscreen)."
Powers added, "(We wanted to be) two people who were adults, who were in love with each other and had chosen to be together and were there because of free will."
Poehler and Scott, who are co-stars on U.S. comedy Parks and Recreation, even reenacted the opening credits for Hart to Hart, donning Seventies' garb as they cruised down a highway in an open-top sports car.

The Hart to Hart star set up a wildlife charity in honour of her longterm partner William Holden following his death in 1981, and regularly travels to the East African country to carry out work for the group.
The centre supports the Mount Kenya Game Ranch by educating locals about protecting animals, and Powers is focused on raising as much as she can for the organisation.
She tells Britain's Hello! magazine, "When Bill died he had wanted to build an education centre on the game range for local people. His partners and I created it as a legacy to him, a living memorial. It's a huge commitment, but one I did not enter into lightly.
"No one pays for my airfare to get to Kenya, no one pays for my car, no one pays for my petrol, no one pays for our office, our insurance, our director's insurance... I don't take a salary. I pay for everything with the money raised. The house is paid for by me and not with donor money. That is very important to me."

The Office star's mum Eva died in 2000 at the age of 74, and Gervais hopes his involvement in the Be Clear on Cancer initiative will alert people to the symptoms.
He says, "It's devastating when you see someone you love dying from lung cancer.
"It's a horrible, horrible disease. My mother's death was very sudden and you can't help wondering if things would have been different had it been spotted earlier."
Veteran actress Stefanie Powers, who was diagnosed with a form of the disease in 2009 and subsequently underwent surgery to remove part of her right lung, is also supporting the campaign.

Theatrics slapstick and cheer are cinematic qualities you rarely find outside the realm of animation. Disney perfected it with their pantheon of cartoon classics mixing music humor spectacle and light-hearted drama that swept up children while still capturing the imaginations and hearts of their parents. But these days even reinterpretations of fairy tales get the gritty make-over leaving little room for silliness and unfiltered glee. Emerging through that dark cloud is Mirror Mirror a film that achieves every bit of imagination crafted by its two-dimensional predecessors and then some. Under the eye of master visualist Tarsem Singh (The Fall Immortals) Mirror Mirror's heightened realism imbues it with the power to pull off anything — and the movie never skimps on the anything.
Like its animated counterparts Mirror Mirror stays faithful to its source material but twists it just enough to feel unique. When Snow White (Lily Collins) was a little girl her father the King ventured into a nearby dark forest to do battle with an evil creature and was never seen or heard from again. The kingdom was inherited by The Queen (Julia Roberts) Snow's evil stepmother and the fair-skinned beauty lived locked up in the castle until her 18th birthday. Grown up and tired of her wicked parental substitute White sneaks out of the castle to the village for the first time. There she witnesses the economic horrors The Queen has imposed upon the people of her land all to fuel her expensive beautification. Along the way Snow also meets Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) who is suffering from his own money troubles — mainly being robbed by a band of stilt-wearing dwarves. When the Queen catches wind of the secret excursion she casts Snow out of the castle to be murdered by her assistant Brighton (Nathan Lane).
Fairy tales take flack for rejecting the idea of women being capable but even with its flighty presentation and dedication to the old school Disney method Mirror Mirror empowers its Snow White in a genuine way thanks to Collins' snappy charming performance. After being set free by Brighton Snow crosses paths with the thieving dwarves and quickly takes a role on their pilfering team (which she helps turn in to a Robin Hooding business). Tarsem wisely mines a spectrum of personalities out of the seven dwarves instead of simply playing them for one note comedy. Sure there's plenty of slapstick and pun humor (purposefully and wonderfully corny) but each member of the septet stands out as a warm compassionate companion to Snow even in the fantasy world.
Mirror Mirror is richly designed and executed in true Tarsem-fashion with breathtaking costumes (everything from ball gowns to the dwarf expando-stilts to ridiculous pirate ship hats with working canons) whimsical sets and a pitch-perfect score by Disney-mainstay Alan Menken. The world is a storybook and even its monsters look like illustrations rather than photo-real creations. But what makes it all click is the actors. Collins holds her own against the legendary Julia Roberts who relishes in the fun she's having playing someone despicable. She delivers every word with playful bite and her rapport with Lane is off-the-wall fun. Armie Hammer riffs on his own Prince Charming physique as Alcott. The only real misgiving of the film is the undercooked relationship between him and Snow. We know they'll get together but the journey's half the fun and Mirror Mirror serves that portion undercooked.
Children will swoon for Mirror Mirror but there's plenty here for adults — dialogue peppered with sharp wisecracks and a visual style ripped from an elegant tapestry. The movie wears its heart on its sleeve and rarely do we get a picture where both the heart and the sleeve feel truly magical.
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The Hart To Hart star was booted off the series on Thursday (24Nov11) after losing the first public vote to five other celebrity contestants, including 1980s singer Sinitta.
But Powers admitted she was happy to end her jungle stint, which she signed up for to raise money for animal conservation and to prove her strength after beating lung cancer.
Leaving the camp, she said: "Isn't that bliss? That's absolutely the best thing that could ever possibly have happened.
"The two reasons that I did this show were to raise some money for the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and to be a poster child for survivors of lung cancer and I think the point was made."

The Hollywood actress has been confirmed as one of the famous contestants who will have to brave the rainforest to set up camp and complete a series of hair-raising trials in a bid to win the show.
Powers' campmates will include McFly rocker Dougie Poynter, model/actress Lorraine Chase, funnyman Freddie Starr, former jockey Willie Carson and Olympic athlete Fatima Whitbread.
The celebrities have jetted out to Australia ahead of the show hitting small screens in the U.K. on 13 November (11).

The glamorous actress played Jennifer Hart in the amateur sleuth series, which ran for a "hugely successful" five years on U.S. network ABC.
But despite the show ending on a high note, Powers insists she was abandoned as a has-been by TV bosses and is convinced the end of a hit show is often the end of its stars' careers.
She tells CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, "When you do a television series that's very successful and when it comes to an end, in spite of the fact that it may have come to a glorious end or that it was highly successful for everybody, including the network, you rarely work on that network for many, many years to come.
"It's as if you were a pariah suddenly. Seldom do you get re-employed quickly. I don't know if it's because people feel that the show somehow ended and therefore you were not bankable anymore. It's the calls that don't get returned. The realisation that, uh-oh, wait a minute, I lost my place in line."

Paris Hilton is not the first celebrity Brian Quintana has accused of harassment, in the 1990s he hit Hart To Hart star Stefanie Powers will similar legal action--but he denies making a habit of lawsuits.
The celebrity socialite was slapped with a restraining order at Los Angeles Superior Court last week, after complaints from promoter Quintana that she'd branded him a "lazy Mexican" and was ruining his business.
In 1995 Quintana sought a similar judgment against Powers when he worked for a charity linked to the flame-haired actress, insisting she would get him drunk and force him to get into bed with her.
Just as Quintana claimed Hilton made threatening calls warning him to stay away from her boyfriend Stavros Niarchos, the party organizer said he began to receive threats from Powers' entourage.
He told tabloid the Globe in 1995, "The calls said, 'Watch your back.' He warned, 'You should be--you're a dead man. You sure messed with the wrong woman.'"
Quintana is adamant he takes no pleasure from filing lawsuits against celebrities. He tells the New York Daily News, "That's ridiculous. It advances my business in no way, and it actually hurts it.
"Look at how litigious Paris is and how many criminal investigations there are involving her. You know, this is the MO (modus operandi) of numerous celebrities who think they're above the law and the little guys who should just go away."
Quintana's case against Powers was dropped when Powers submitted legal documents proving she was overseas for most of the period Quintana claimed the abuse took place.
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Successfully sued London Daily Mail for libel over report Powers had sexually harassed a former assistant and was also an alcoholic

TV-movie debut, "Five Desperate Women" (ABC)

Co-starred with Harold Gould in the crime drama series, "The Feather and Father Gang"

Starred in ABC miniseries "Washington Behind Closed Doors"

Played Gloria in "The Interns"; a role she reprised in the 1964 sequel

Played Jennifer Hart in "Hart to Hart", opposite Robert Wagner

Cast as Anna in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I"

Starred onstage in the London musical, "Matador", as an Ava Gardner-like character

Cast in a tour of the revival of "Applause"; played Margo Channing

Appeared in several miniseries and TV-movies including "Mistral's Daughter" (1984) and "At Mother's Request" (1987)

Film debut, "Tammy, Tell Me True"

Summary

A near constant presence on television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, actress Stephanie Powers became known for her always reliable portrayals of smart, sexy and intelligent women. A native of Hollywood, Powers began pursuing her career while still a teenager, landing early roles in films that included "Experiment in Terror" (1962) and "McClintock!" (1963). Her eponymous role as "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E." (NBC, 1966-67) nearly made her a household name, despite being canceled after only one season. Soon after, Powers flourished during the heyday of made-for-television movies, appearing almost weekly, it seemed, in such fare as "Five Desperate Women" (ABC, 1971) and "A Death in Canaan" (CBS, 1978). It was, however, in her role as the elegant and erudite Jennifer Hart opposite Robert Wagner on the adventure series "Hart to Hart" (ABC, 1979-1984) that she would be most associated for the remainder of her career. In 1981, the sudden deaths of her companion, William Holden, and Wagner's wife, Natalie Wood, within weeks of each other, came as devastating blows at the height of the show's popularity. In the years that followed, Powers continued the wildlife preservation efforts that she and Holden had been so passionate about, even as she continued to act - albeit less frequently - on select television projects, including a return as Jennifer Hart alongside Wagner in several made-for-TV movies. Boasting a personal life as fulfilling as her vast acting repertoire, Powers continually explored new roles in film, theater, television, and, most importantly, the world at large.

Name

Role

Comments

Patrick de la Chesnais

Husband

French; born c. 1948; married on April 1, 1993; separated in 1998; filed for divorce on June 18, 1999

Education

Name

Hollywood High School

Notes

In addition to working for animal rights, Powers has designed a line of clothes which was sold on the Home Shopping Network and has released two home videos--one on horseback riding (1989) and the other demonstrating exercises which can be done to Broadway show tunes (1992).

The William Holden Wildlife Foundation, of which Powers is president, serves 10,000 students per year and is located near the Mt. Kenya Game Ranch founded by Holden in the late 1950s.

Powers has been involved with several US zoos, including those in Cincinnati and Atlanta, where she works on several species survival programs.

Powers has served as spokesperson for the HomeAgain Companion Animal Retrieval System, a microchip inplant designed to track house pets and help return them to their owners if they stray or are stolen.

Powers went to Hollywood High School with Linda Evans, best-known as the co-star of "Dynasty"

"I've never been threatened by animals. Generally, unless you are deaf, dumb, blind and stupid, you try not to be in their territory, or misunderstand where their territory is. It's generally human beings who make the mistake. The animals are just behaving the way they normally do."---Stefanie Powers

"It's been a long, long journey, but I've had such extraordinary opportunities to work with remarkable people."---Powers quoted to Venice magazine, April 2005.